Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
12. Nidāna Saṃyutta
5. Gahapati Vagga
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
Part II.
The Book of Causation Nidāna-Vagga
12. Connected Discourses on Causation
5. The Householder
Sutta 46
Aññatara Brāhmaṇa Suttaṃ
A Certain Brahmin
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Copyright Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)
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Then a certain brahmin approached the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him.
When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, he sat down to one side and said to him:
"How is it, Master Gotama: is the one who acts the same as the one who experiences [the result]?"
"'The one who acts is the same as the one who experiences [the result]': this, brahmin, is one extreme."
[76] "Then, Master Gotama, is the one who acts one, and the one who experiences [the result] another?"
"'The one who acts is one, and the one who experiences [the result] is another': this, brahmin, is the second extreme.
Without veering towards either of these extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma by the middle:
'With ignorance as condition, volitional formations [come to be]; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness. ... Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.
But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitional formations; with the cessation of volitional formations, cessation of consciousness. ...
Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering."
When this was said, that brahmin said to the Blessed One:
"Magnificent, Master Gotama! ...
I go for refuge to Master Gotama, and to the Dhamma, and to the Bhikkhu Saṇgha . From today let Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life."
